Gluten Confessions

Confessions of a Gluten Addict Digestion is too important to mess it up with gluten (also known as "dietary crack"). And overall health and well-being are so much easier in a gluten-free world! The problems with gluten appear to range from autism in the very young to MS in adults and to autoimmune anywhere. My story: For well over 20 years homemade bread was a staple almost every week. Good bread with wholesome ingredients: whole wheat and honey and real butter. Biscuits were often there, too, and they were whole wheat and butter. OK, a little refined flour so that they would rise better. Buns and sandwich bread at meals outside the home were welcomed. No problems with gluten, no need to change, everything was good. So now after two months of being gluten free, bowel movements are regular and easy, and there is less distention of the stomach. The slight bulge was not noticeable until it was gone. The couple of pounds lost (there was very little extra to lose) probably came from either less inflammation, or less gluten caked to the intestinal walls, or both. Who knows - maybe the discomfort in my hips will go away eventually.

Almond and coconut flours have provided alternatives to the gluten flours. They are different, and the recipes are quite different, but these good alternatives have become alternative staples in the diet. There are plenty of other alternatives being used for grains, including quinoa, rice, buckwheat (a seed, not a grain!), tapioca, etc. Find what works for you, but be careful not to end up with gluten alternatives that are just carbohydrates, adding glycemic load without adding fiber, protein, and nutrition. Gluten has that great ability to bind the ingredients together and make a pretty biscuit or muffin. For the gluten-free recipes, eggs are often used for the same purpose. Eggs are one of the most perfect foods, so this is a good addition to the benefits of almonds or coconut. Sometimes, you really do not need the rising effect. It is OK to have a flatbread. A fluffy piece of gluten is not a necessity in life, but something we have been trained to be normal and acceptable, even preferable. This is another example of unlearning that can be helpful.

There are so many well written books on the problems with gluten and the benefits of gluten-free. Some of the classics are:Dangerous Grains by James BralyWheat Belly by William Davis, M.D.

Gluten is Latin for “glue.” This gives a strong clue that gluten is difficult to digest. Since wheat and other gluten containing grains have been around for thousands of years, we might wonder why we are having a problem now. The amount of gluten in the food supply, the manner in which we handle gluten foods from industrial agriculture to the table, and the digestive strength of the current population are all contributing factors to our current problems. We are probably better at identifying gluten as the culprit, as well, although many diseases (from IBS to asthma) may still be identifying only the symptoms rather than the cause.

Some of the factors associated with gluten health issues are listed below. Inability to adequately digest gluten results in inflammation as undigested food “gums up” the works. Inflammation is a normal repair process, but in chronic inflammation, there is never a return to normal. Chronic inflammation is a severe stressor on the body, a very large cause of the aging process and the chronic diseases associated with aging. Inflammation of the gut is the swelling of intestinal tissue, resulting in a porous lining (intestinal permeability, aka “leaky gut.”) Rather than allowing only nutrients to enter the blood stream, undigested food, bacteria, toxins, and other debris enter the bloodstream The body must deal with this toxicity, trying to excrete it through skin, lungs, and kidneys. Health issues will develop with these tissues trying to expel the toxins. Almost 20 years ago, Dr. Alessio Fasano discovered that gluten prompted the body to produce zonulin. Zonulin is a protein that regulates the tight junctions of the intestines, opening them to create leaky gut. Originally found in celiac patients, zonulin appears to be produced in greater abundance when the tissues are exposed to gluten, not necessarily only in celiac disease patients. The damage done by opening the intestinal barrier and allowing toxicity into the bloodstream is associated with many diseases, including autoimmunity and cancer. The Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) is the same material as the intestinal lining and is also subject to opening by zonulin. When zonulin enters the blood stream, it reaches the BBB and creates a "leaky" or permeable BBB. This allows all types of toxicity to enter the brain wreaking damage. This is associated with diagnoses as extreme as autism in young children, or neurodegenrative orders such as MS in adults. This disturbance of normal gut function alters the microbiome. Bacteria performing beneficial functions are replaced by bacteria that are not helpful. Ability to extract nutrition from food and transfer that nutrition to cells throughout the body is hampered. Reduced nutrition means reduced function. Health problems increase across a wide range. The immune system is heightened by the toxic flood through the porous intestines. Because many of the offenders are proteins, the immune system may mistake a protein similar to our own tissue as the enemy. The toxin appearing to be our own tissue is known as “molecular mimicry.” This tissue becomes a target of the immune system. The new “enemy” may be the intestine (Crohn’s), connective tissue (rheumatoid arthritis), thyroid (Hashimoto’s), or any of the many other autoimmune diseases.

​ Whether it is worthwhile to have gluten in the diet is an individual issue. While there may be no signs of a problem with gluten, we may not recognize that our health issues – mental and physical – are actually rooted in problems handling gluten.Next article